Who You Really Are
by EMC-STORIES
Summary: After defeating Zenoheld, a grand party turns into mourning for a friend. Secrets and double lives are revealed. Who you really are might put those you love in danger...so what would you do? Mainly T rated, might be slight M down the line but nothing too crazy.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, so this is a bit of a spin-off kinda situation surrounding Alice. It's quite out there but the whole Bakugan plot is included. This takes place at the end of the New Vestroia arc.**

It was time for celebration. The Brawlers had done it, they defeated Zenoheld and the Vexos. A lot had been lost in that final battle, but Earth and Vestal were safe and Marucho couldn't help but use it as an excuse to host another grad celebration in his mansion. Everyone who helped the team to get here was in attendance. Marucho knew how to throw a grand party; bright lights, music, a banquet and people from all over the world, both human and vestal. Everyone was in suits and evening gowns, dressed to the occasion.

Dan was telling the story for the 100th time that evening. The story about how he apparently single-handedly defeated Zenoheld. Of course Runo wasn't letting him have it, "Dan! For God's sake! Stop bragging! You didn't do it all by yourself, what about Spectra? Mira? You know, the whole TEAM?!" she screamed at him. Dan got very quite very quickly and Spectra, Ace and Marucho all started laughing at his embarrassment. Baron and Mora joined them both with drinks in their hands. "I guess some things will never change..." Mira sighed through a smile. She remembered the first day she had met the Brawlers, when Dan and Marucho came through to New Vestroia and Dan had the same sense of heroism and self absorption, but it wasn't in bad heart. The Brawlers were a fmaily, she almost lost every single one of her family members to this war. She still had her brother with her, which was more than enough for her.

Marucho started looking around, everyone happy and relieved at the end of the war. All talking, laughing and drinking; they weren't all able to enjoy themselves like this in a long time. In the back of his mind, Bakugan Interspace development excited him, but it was all still in the early stages. Alice and Shun had helped him out with simulations and development. He looked around for them both and finally spotted them both in the pale darkness that was just about visible through the open grand doors to the balcony. _I wonder what they're talk about out there? _Marucho thought. He could see their faces as they were looking out towards to city.

Keith noticed Marucho looking at the two, just then Shun left Alice and was walking indoors looking like his usual serious self. He walked to the group without saying a word. "Everything alright, Shun?" Marucho asked him. Shun nodded, but not a word came out of him as he looked around the room calmly. Keith could help but notice Alice was still out there alone, he decided to go out to make sure she was ok. "Not a fan of the noise?" he remarked, giving her enough of a fright to make her turn around. She was a stunning human, even Keith could see that. Her hair was like fire, long and intensely auburn in complete contrast to her fair and perfect complexion. She was in a dark purple long satin evening gown with no sleeves and a silver necklace with a black gem pendant fell on her chest. "After a couple years of Dan's excessive talking you kinda get the jist of what he's like in situations like this" she joked at him and turned around to look at the city again, "I don't think I'm missing much." she laughed softly. Keith didn't really know what to say to that because he understood that. He got the feeling she was happy to be out here alone and thought that she wanted to be alone, "Don't be out here alone all night, your friends are all having fun inside." he turned around and left her to it. Alice sighed into a softly sad expression, "They aren't my friends, they're my family".

Inside everyone was having a great time, people were getting tipsy and Dan was getting louder. All of a sudden an piercingly loud noise started to alert the guests. "That's the fire alarm! This place is so big it could be anywhere! We have to get out!" Marucho shouted over the sound of the alarm; with that everyone started exiting the room to go out. Shun was the last out and had to close the doors for safety but he froze for a second, just as the doors were almost completely closed. Dan noticed this, "Hey Shun! Come on!" Shun snapped out of it and closed the doors and made his way to the exit of the massive mansion.

Everyone was outside. Waiting. Nobody was told what was going on and the whispering turned into loud chatters of concern. "Man, what's going on? Where's the fire?" Baron asked Marucho, but he just shrugged in response. "Don't know, the firefighters should almost be done with an examination of the place" Just as he said that a group of 15 firemen came out of the doors, "It's all clear!" One of them yelled and walked up to Marucho, " We couldn't find what set off the alarms so we think it was just a malfunction in the system when we had a look, so it's all clear". He assured Marucho and then left. Marucho turned to face all of his guests, "Ok everyone! Looks like eveything is ok and we can all get back to out cel-" Then the unthinkable. A sound the shocked then thundered through the air. The scene in front of everyone turned blinding yellow and red. An explosion so big it completely covered the mansion and took it away too. The whole place up in flames. The screams and shouts from everyone in the courtyard went down to complete silence. The firemen had turned around and ran towards the house with hoses. Everyone was in complete shock. Marucho watched as his home crumbled and burnt to almost nothing.

One of the firemen ran to Marucho, "Everyone was out, right?" He yelled over the sound of the burning building. Marucho nodded still in complete shock, "Yeah everyone ran out with the alarm, I don't think anyone else was left!" He responded and looked around at the group of people around him. That's when he knew, somebody was missing. "Wait..." he whispered but loud enough for his friends to hear him. "Where's...where's Alice?" He asked with complete serious worry in his voice. Everyone looked around but she wasn't there. "Noway she's still inside! She would have heard the alarm!" Julie shouted. Everyone nodded, but they knew she wasn't there.

"She might still be in there!" Dan shouted. With the the fireman nodded and ran to the house,

"OK! Rescue mission guys, there's still somebody inside!" he commanded to his team.

The large group of guests watched as the firemen broke through he walls of fire and crumbled remains of the mansion. Minutes went by, an hour went by, some of the other guests where told to go home but the Brawlers stayed. Waiting for Alice to come out of the ashes. The fire was almost completely gone now, only a few spots were still dying down as they were being tackled. The brawlers were all sat in silence, waiting. "Why is it taking so long?" Runo whispered, Dan geld her as she started to choke up. "She would have left... why didn't she leave?" Julie added almost breaking into tears.

The Firemen started exiting the ruins of the mansion and the brawlers all stood up and ran towards them. "So? Where is she?" Runo asked the head fireman. He took his helmet off and looked at the group, "I'm afraid we didn't find anyone. Everything is completely gone as you can see, burnt to the ground. We search where she was last seen and the gardens outside but we didn't find anything." The brawlers went in complete shocked silence. "I'm afraid to say, if she was left inside...she wouldn't have made it." He added.

Runo fell to the ground a complete emotional mess. Julie followed almost immediately and everyone else just went into almost a complete state of shock, which turned into visible and audible sadness. Shun just stood there, blank, staring at the remains of the mansion. They couldn't believe it. In a matter of minutes they had lost one of there own. Not to a battle or war, but something as simple and human as a house fire. Wounds from losing people in the recent battle reopened and ther grieving processes started all over again.

**HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED THE FIRST CHAPTER.**

**I have been wanting to get this story going for a while so hope you enjoy this! I have a feeling it's going to be a long one!**

**Thank you! R&R xx**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! Thank you to everyone who read; it's all appreciated! For this story im taking inspiration from a lot of different things including X-men, some musical bits and a mash of TV/Movies.**

_Recap:_

_The Brawlers were celebrating the end of the war against Zenoheld when the fire alarm was set off. At first the fire department said nothing was wrong then Marucho's mansion exploded into flames. The Brawler's then realised Alice wasn't with them and the firemen found no trace of her and the building burnt to the ground._

It was a dark day. Alice was dead. Actually dead. The Brawlers went looking for her for days with no outcome. She was gone.

The Brawlers trickled in one by one into the Misaki diner in complete silence. All dressed in black from Alice's funeral. They all dispersed around the room, some starting to whisper to each other about the service or the food. They all still couldn't believe the last week. Runo sat in a booth next to Dan in a complete blank state, she hadn't spoken all day. Julie stared at her best friend, almost bursting into tears once again but there was nothing left in her.

Baron then decided to break the silence, "Well, as far as funerals go I guess that was pretty ok?" he turned to Dan. That broke her and Runo whispered, "It wasn't a funeral..." the Brawlers turned around to look at her, looking like she was about to snap. "A funeral...is burying a body...but...WE DIDN'T EVEN FIND THAT." She finally broke. The other Brawlers just looked down, they understood what she was saying and most agreed. The rest of the team slowly left as the night started to set in, leaving only Runo, Dan, Keith and Mira. Runo was in the kitchen sorting the place out while the other three were sat down in a booth. "This is insane..." Mira whispered "Everything was finally going well and then..." she couldn't finish her sentence. She hadn't known Alice much but she still considered her a team member and a friend.

"I still don't understand how she didn't make it out...but it's beyond us now." Keith commented, he too unable to understand how to feel. He had known Alice about the same amount as his sister with the added interactions while helping with interspace.

"I haven't see Shun since the service, where did he go?" Mira looked up at Dan, who was sat opposite her. He gave her a small and slightly saddened smile.

"He and Alice had...a special bond. I can't imagine this being easy on him at all." he replied to her. Neither Vestal had ever seen Dan like this, completely drained and out of sorts. Both Mira and Keith nodded then looked at each other. "I think we are going to have to get going if we're going back to Vestal." Keith told his sister. Mira nodded in response and gave Dan a small smile who gave both of them a small smile as they left.

As the door closed behind them Runo came out the kitchen. Dan looked at his girlfriend. She was a shell of what she used to be. She walked to him and sat down beside him, not a word was exchanged but she started to break down into tears. Dan pulled her close to him and she buried her face into his chest. Out of their own personal losses this was the biggest, they didn't just lose a team member but a sister and that was too much for either of them to come to terms with.

Mira and Keith stepped through the portal into Vestal where Gus and Ace greeted them. "How are they doing?" Ace asked Mira.

"Terrible. I have never seen Dan and Runo like that... they've lost so much through losing her..." Mira told him. Ace gave her a single nod, fully understanding the situation. He put his hand out for her to take, which she did and they walked out of the lab. Keith and Gus started shutting down the portal in complete silence. Neither really knew how to feel at this point. Then Gus decided to break the silence with an issue that was in his mind, "What do you think happened?" He asked his best friend. Keith stopped what he was doing but didn't even look at Gus, "What do you mean?" he whispered back. Gus sighed, there was something obviously on his mind that he was scared to bring up, but then he did.

"It doesn't make sense, none of this does. She was with everyone, even on the balcony she would have heard the alarm. Nobody was in the room when we all vacated, how did nobody notice she was missing? It just doesn't make any sense and-"

"One of us died, Gus. Yes, we lost many people in the war against Zenoheld but she was the first actually genuine and good person to go. It's really not the time to discuss this yet..." Keith commented, taking Gus aback but not letting it show. He sighed while looking down at the wires he was holding.

"I understand." Gus added. Both started to wrap up but not before Keith gave one last remark.

"but I get what you mean, something isn't adding up." Gus looked at him. So he wasn't crazy for thinking it. Both men didn't know that their theories were so far from the reality of what happened that night; but it wouldn't be too long until they would find out.

It was a cold night, in many ways. Shun was sat on a bench looking out at the river, where the lights made everything just about visible. It seemed like he was still trying to come to terms with everything that had happened. Yet, he looked completely emotionless. This is how he would deal with the tough days before he met Alice; he'd be alone, all the time. It felt like things were going to go back to that now.

As Shun was battling his inner thoughts something caught his attention, he knew exactly what it was. "You really shouldn't be out in the open like this." Shun said to the dark male figure that stood behind him.

"Just thought I'd make sure you were ok." the man said.

Shun gave the comment a soft sarcastic chuckle through his nose. "No, no you didn't. I know why you're here." he said standing up from the bench slowly and turning to see the man behind him.

"What you waiting for then? Come on." the man invited him as he turned away form Shun and started walking away. Shun waited a few moments before following him away.

_A month later..._

Things had finally began to settle down. The mourning hadn't completely stopped but everyone had come to terms with what had happened and had started to go about their normal lives. Alice's death was no longer the topic of conversation everyday.

Runo was working in the diner while Dan and Baron were stuffing their faces at a table. Everything seemed back to normal. Then, Julie ran into the diner with her cheerleading uniform on.

"Hey guys! How you all doing?" she asked in her usual high pitched cheery voice. The boys were too concerned with their meal to respond but gave her a wave.

"I swear to God, those boys will eating anything..." Runo said as she left the kitchen to greet her friend.

"Hey Runo, How you doin?" Julie asked her friend as she sat down on a bar stool in front of her.

Runo sighed and placed her hands on her hip, "I'm alright, just a load of work and those two are making it even more..." she told Julie. Julie looked at her friend with a softness in her eyes.

"Ok...how you actually doing?" she knew her friend had been having a particularly hard time with their best friend's death. Runo's face dropped to a sad smile.

"I'm ok...things...are getting better." she reassured Julie. Both girls just looked at each other; they were still a family, but a piece was missing.

_Meanwhile in an unknown location..._

Three young men were looking at a wall of screens, each showed different locations where the Brawlers spent most of their time. The three looked seriously at the different groups of people they saw through the screen.

"I think we're almost in the clear." one of them said to the other two. The eldest looking one then looked down and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Don't get sloppy now, they might not be asking questions but it doesn't mean they aren't thinking." he informed the others, "I need you guys to keep an eye out, we can't have any incidents now that we seem to have things under control. Understood?" both men nodded and smiled at each other, they both turned around and started walking out of the dark room.

"You just keep Shun under control, J" one of the boys said before exiting through the mechanical automatic doors.

The one remaining person just stood there in silence, looking at the screens in front of him. Finally he sighed with some sort of relief and he placed his hands on his waist. "Hopefully, we've seen the last of you, Brawlers..."

_A week later..._

The brawlers had been spending a lot of time together, Marucho was working on Bakugan interspace and everybody was in on helping. Marucho, Runo, Julie, Mira, Ace and Keith were all in

in the control room, Baron and Dan had just finished a test battle in the arena. "Daaaaaamn master Dan, you could have gone easier on me there!" Baron commented, obviously feeling deflated about losing to his friend.

"What good what that do? To become the best you need to beat the best; and the best is still me haha!" Dan remarked, full of glee.

"Oh lord Dan quit it!" Runo rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. They all gathered around the screen where Marucho was typing away.

"I think it's almost ready for the beta test run, guys! With the data of that last battle I will be able to fix any last bugs!" Marucho announced to his friends. They all smiled at the screen and at each other; then Marucho's smile quicjly faded as the memory of Alice helping him through the first stages of setting it all up. Dan noticed his suddenly saddened friend and placed his hand on his shoulder, Marucho looked up at him. "She would have been proud of what you've done, buddy" Dan whispered to him just enough for him to hear over the sound of the others chatting away.

A sudden ringing like cellphone tone went off and Keith took out his hologram communicator and pressed the answer button. A hologram of Gus appeared and he was shaken. "Master!" he said in a panic.

"What is it, Gus? You seem out of sorts" Keith said with worry in his voice, he hadn't seen his Gus like this in a long while.

"You need to see this!" Gus told him as he typed something out and sent it over to the control centre interface. It was a video, a disaster zone which looked like earth. People were screaming and running from a a monster that seemed to be made of a grey rock-like material. It had cracks all over with a luminous red glow coming through which also pierced through its eyes. Everyone was confused and shocked. "What in the world is that?!" Julie squealed out loud.

Keith turned back to his friend on the hologram, "Gus, what is this?!" He questioned with concern and a hint of fear in his voice. Gus took a breath and looked at Keith.

"That's not the most shocking fact of the video, keep watching." so they did. They watched as the creature destroyed, attacked and terrified everything and everyone in its path. Then off screen a young male voice was heard, "Hey!" and person who was filming turned to find a group of young people all in matching dark blue jumpsuits coming down on the scene. They all wore black masks that made their eyes bright red circles. Two teen boys who looked almost identical with bright orange hair, Two girls, one with long black hair and one with short blonde hair and an older guy with black hair.

"Who are those guys?" Baron questioned the room but everyone was too taken by the scene in front of them. They watched as the team approached the beast. "Jane, go!" The man with brown hair commanded and the girl with black hair started levitating and a sphere created around her, it was like energy or electricity. She though her arms in front of her and all that energy was thrown towards the beast in the blink of an eye, sending it flying ahead. The Brawlers were in shock, they had never seen anything like that. They watched as one after another each of the members of that mystery group attacked the beast. It wasn't a long fight, finally they had managed to have it pinned to the ground and the blonde girl walked up to it and simply held her hand up and closer her fist and it exploded into millions of pieces. The camera was hit by the pieces and cut off.

Everyone was in shock. Keith snapped out of it and turned back to Gus who had been watching their reactions. " Gus, what is this?" he asked and Gus started typing again.

"This video was posted a couple hours ago and the president made a statement not an hour ago. I'll send it through." He said as he typed away and the video appeared on the screen. It showed a press conference where the president was addressing the public.

"For years, we have been working with a gifted group of young people to make this world a more secure and habitable place. This work was done in complete discretion, until now. We owe this group of young people with extraordinary abilities the recognition they deserve, for saving us time and time again and never demanding anything in return." the president announced to the press as cameras flashed and people discussed.

The Brawlers all stared at the screen, they could see a couple of the members of the group from the video they saw before. They were standing behind the president, in line. "Please, give a warm welcome of appreciation to the M.S.S, the mutant secret service!" The president announced as he turned to show the whole line up of tea members. They were all there, masks still one, plus a couple new faces, so to speak. The oldest one stepped forward to the microphone.

"Thank you, mister president." He spoke to the man to his right and took a second and then a depe breath. "We weren't born like most of you. We were born with different DNA. DNA that makes us who we are, still human but different. We don't have all the answers but one I can assure you of is we're here to stay; and we will do everything in our power to help humans be safe on our planet." a round of applause filled the room and the line of mutants was shown again before the video stopped.

The bawlers were in complete silence, in complete shock at what they had just witnessed. Then Dan broke the silence quite loudly.

"Well... WHAT THE FU-"

**That was a long one! I do feel like I should have probably included that first scene into the first chapter but oh well. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the second chapter! Enjoy this one! Please review so I know where I can improve!**

_Recap:_

_All the brawlers were out of sorts after Alice's funeral, especially Runo. Jump ahead to a month and things are going back to normal slowly and Marucho has almost completed Bakugan Interspace. The Brawlers get a call form Gus who sends them a video of a group a young people with special abilities defeating a rock-like monster. Then they see a video of the president announcing that this group of people has been helping Earth remain safe in secret for a long while, the brawlers are in complete shock._

The Brawlers were all sat around the conference table in the control centre, still in shock and speechless about what had just been announced. They couldn't wrap their heads around how, first of all there was a secret group of young mutants who had kept Earth safe for years (because let's face it, it's crazy), and second of all, how people like that even existed. Yes, they were used to the whole people in different dimensions but none of them had superpowers.

"Ok...so..." Marucho broke the silence "We know they have saved Earth before, right under our noses...somehow..." he continued but was unable to rack anything else up from his spinning mind. Then Dan's patience broke, "HOW ON EARTH DID WE NEVER KNOW? SURELY THEY ARE PRETTY EASY TO SPOT! SUPERHEROS JUST HIDDEN?" He yelled.

"Mutants." Mira spoke and everyone turned their heads to her even just slightly. "They're mutants...and they're not as rare as you'd think." she spoke up confusing all the humans in the room. Then Ace turned to her, "You mean Riley?" he questioned, already knowing he was right. This confused the humans even more.

"Erm... who?" Runo asked the vestal girl who was sat with a sad yet pensive look on her face.

"Riley. The Vestal princess." Dan, Runo, Julie and Marucho were all taken aback.

"What do you mean Vestal princess?" Dan asked

Mira sighed then went on to tell the human Brawlers the story.

"Zenoheld wasn't the original king of Vestal, he took the throne by force from the old king and queen, Hydron's real parents. He had a sister, a twin sister, Riley. In the battle where Zenoheld murdered hundreds, including the king and queen, she also...vanished; nobody ever saw her..." all the Vestal brawlers looked down, slightly saddened.

The humans were still very confused. "Yeah but what does that have to to do with the mutants?" Dan asked Mira.

She looked up at him but before she could speak, Keith interjected, "She was one. She was a mutant, special abilities. She... could control all 6 elements that represent the attributes, she could throw objects across a room without being anywhere near it. She could make you feel things, make you think things. She always knew what you were thinking without you saying a word. All of it." he was lost in his mind. Then they all understood.

Julie was trying to piece things together, "So... if one of those guys was born in Vestal...doesn't that mean that these guys aren't human? Like at all?" she asked her friends. Ace shook his head.

"Nobody knew how she got her abilities. None of the royal family have anything of the sort in their history. No other Vestal for that matter." He informed the rest.

"So whatever made her that way... is probably what made them the same?" Marucho asked not only to himself, but the room.

Keith nodded slowly at the question, "It is very likely" he commented before the doors behind him opened and the whole room turned towards them.

In walked Shun, who had made himself very scarce since Alice's death. All the brawlers were in shock. "Shun! So nice of you to make an appearance" Dan sarcastically commented, in jest but with a slight tone of seriousness. Shun looked at his friend and sighed then he walked toward the table.

"I thought it was about time." he said back to the group, Dan smiled and walked to his best friend. He held his hand out to him, "Nice to have you back buddy." Shun gave him a small smile back before joining his hand with Dan's.

The team brought Shun up to speed with everything about interspace and what they had just found out about M.S.S. He seemed unphased, it was Shun after all not much shocked or moved him. The Vestal Brawlers had left, back to their dimension, and only Dan and Shun were left in the control room. The two friend s were sat talking about the last few weeks.

"You been ok, man?...I know it must have been really hard for you..." Dan asked Shun with concern.

Shun slowly nodded and sigh before turning to Dan, "It's bene hard, but I'm ok. I don't want to talk about it though." Shun looked away form the brunette beside him. Dan understood and nodded.

"Crazy though isn't it? The whole mutant thing? It's like insane!" Dan remarked. Shun gave the smallest of chuckles through his nose and nodded slowly at what Dan had said.

"It is; but it's not like we're not used to things like this. I don't think much is really changing, especially if they have been around this whole time." He told his best friend.

"That's true, it's just crazy. The kind of thing you only hear about in the movies!" Dan said kicking up his feet in the table and leaning back into his chair, exhausted from the long day of battling and surprises.

Shun looked at him, looking as if he was about to say something but decided not to and he looked away. Maybe things would start to go back to normal for everyone now.

_The next day..._

Marucho was typing away, trying to fix the last bits of Interspace so they could start running the beta version. Dan, Runo and Julie walked in.

"Heeeey buddy! How you getting on?" Dan asked the little blonde guy at the computer.

Without removing his gaze from the data in front of him Marucho responded, "It's almost done! I still can't figure out how that data we received fits into all of this..." referring to that message they received containing a strand of mystery data.

"Your guess is as good as ours!" Julie exclaimed and they all laughed. Then the doors flew open and Mira ran in out of breathe.

"Hey guys, have you seen this?!" She asked getting her phone out in front of them. It was a live stream video of a fight between the two similar male mutants and a monster who looked like he was on fire...on purpose.

"No way! Another one of those things?!" Runo exclaimed, they kept watching the video. The guys where having some trouble, a lot of there actions caused a lot of damage to the surrounding buildings.

"You guys notice where they are?" Mira asked the group, fishing for the obvious answer. The brawlers stared at the screen and it hit them all.

"That's Moscow!" Marucho finally said as all of there eyes widened.

Mira nodded, "Exactly...which means...?" Mira was leading them to find the answer on their own.

Then it hit Runo, "It means we can have a front row seat to some serious monster butt kicking!" She shouted and everyone understood.

"We are still linked to the dimension transporter in Dr. Michael's old lab!" Marucho revealed as he rolled his chair back to the keyboard. He opened up the transporter link to try and connect to the lab in Moscow. "Found it! It's dormant but I can override the commands and get us there!" to that everyone got ready to go and ran through the portal, all expect Runo and Dan. She was hesitant.

"Do you think this is right? Using their dimension transporter for something like this?" She asked her boyfriend and he walked to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"I think they both would have wanted us to follow any adventure we are given." he assured her and took her hand before they both ran in.

_In the Gehabich lab..._

The Brawlers ran through and immediately noticed that the surrounding they were so familiar had changed. Everything was covered with massive white sheets, all the machines Dr. Michael had built, all the control; except the transporter. Everything had been pushed together in a corner of the massive room.

"Woah, it's so different..." Marucho noted to which they all nodded slowly. Everything was coated in dust. Dr. Michael had passed a few months before Alice left so they hadn't really been to the lab in a while. They all stood around looking a the lab, remembering all the times they were here, from those first few missions. They reminisced about the friend they lost and how she was alone here for so long, disconnected from everyone else. Dan snapped out of it first, "Come on guys! We have to hurry if we're gonna catch the end of that fight!" He said starting to run forward but Mira grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back on to the ground.

"Wait! Can you hear that?" she whispered to the team. They all listened out and could hear voices coming from outside the lab.

"Who is tha-" Julie started to ask but she was interrupted by the doors opening. This startled the brawlers and they ran and hid behind one of the covered machines but peered out to see and they were shocked. It was a few of the masked mutants, that older guy who had addressed everyone at the press conference, a really small young male child and another female. They all wore those same suits and masks from the first fight they had seen.

"What are they doing here?!" Dan whispered to his friends who were still all hiding, they shook their heads not knowing what to say.

"Right, we need a damage report on the city... I can't believe I let those two idiots out of my sight..." the eldest said to the girl behind him.

"It's not all your fault, they should know not to take on titans on their own." She replied while she tapped away on a tablet in her hands. "There's a lot of structural damage to most of the buildings in the town...nothing a good time swap won't fix." She said to him, putting the tablet down to her side.

"Dylan, please don't turn out like them...they are way too reckless for their own good." the eldest said to the small boy beside him. Who ran up to him with a smirk on his face, he didn't look a day over 8, or 5 for that matter.

"I mean they did win!" he taunted the older mutant. He just sighed and shook his head.

"What the hell is going on?!" Runo exclaimed in a concerned whisper.

"Why are they here?" Julie turned to her best friend.

"They must have known that the facility was no longer in use so they took advantage of the space." Marucho explained his theory. The doors flew open again and the two male mutants walked through, without their masks. They were definitely twins, just with different hair colours, they looked about 16 years old.

"WOOOO HOOO! Man that was insane!" The black haired twin yelled to the room. The three who were already in the room all turned to them, the two older ones didn't look impressed with their entrance.

"You guys could have seriously hurt somebody! You destroyed half the town!" The older one said to them.

To that the black haired twin sighed, "Dude...we won...calm down! Nobody was hurt! Jane can fix the buildings in a split second." He said his tone showing guilt through the high pitched notes.

The older mutant went very serious, "We shouldn't have to fix something that was easily avoidable." he said in a very stern voice. He then went to remove his mask to reveal his face, deep brown eyes and a soft but serious face. "You ever do that again and I'm suspending you guy." he warned his fellows.

Then the ginger twin spoke up, "Hey! I only went with him because he said he was gonna take it on by himself! If I hadn't gone he would have run wild!" he defended himself. To which his team members just sighed and shrugged.

"You just have to hope your sister doesn't get a hold of you before it's all fixed, cause she's gonna real-" The older mutant was interrupted by the doors opening once more. "and...never mind..." he finished as a female figure walked quickly and with purpose though the lab doors. She had short hair just above her shoulders and was wearing a mask, one thing was certain she was angry. She made a b-line directly for the ginger twin.

"How dumb are you?!" she shouted taking him by his shirt and slamming him against the wall.

"Woah, don't piss her off..." Mira remarked.

"You are never to go out on a mission alone and be so reckless! Understood?!" She reprimanded the frightened boy she was holding a couple feet into the air. The rest of their team just watched as he tried to break free form her, all slightly amused. The Brawlers shared their amusement form the comfort of their hiding spot.

"Jonah... a little help...?" the suspending mutant pleaded.

The eldest now known as Jonah chuckled and shook his head, "Sorry Mike but you brought this upon yourself! You deserve it." he shrugged and walked to a computer screen behind him.

He turned to his twin for help, "Tyler...!" but he just turned around to the younger boy and picked him up.

"Hey, Where's Kyla?" he asked the little boy in his arms trying to change the subject.

"Ok Alice, I think you've scared him enough." Jonah turned to the girl holding his teammate hostage. To which she dropped him and he fell on the floor.

The brawlers all looked confused and slightly shocked. "What did he call her?" Julie whispered to her friends, fully knowing what had been said. The red hair girl turned to the rest of the group and tried to control herself, she went to reach for her mask slowly.

"I swear to God you're gonna kill me one day..." she said to the boy on the floor and she took off her mask.

Immediately all the brawlers couldn't believe their eyes. Julie and Mira covered their mouths in shock. Runo was frozen, eyes wide open. The girl in front of them. The mutant. Was Alice. The girl they all knew to be dead for the last month.

**Ok, the last few chapters were all building to this. The real plot will kick in from the next chapter so stay tuned! Please review or DM me with your thoughts!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey! I can see you guys reading but nobody is reviewing or messaging me with what I can do better or suggestions..it would be so appreciated!**

_Recap:_

_The Brawlers used the Gehabich transporter to find a couple of mutants who were battling a titan in Moscow. Once they arrived they were surprised to see that the mutants had been using the Gehabich lab as a headquarters. In their hiding they also learnt the names of some of the mutants and, most shocking of all, Alice is one of them._

"No..." Runo just managed to whisper, quivering in complete shock. Alice was alive. Alice was a mutant. There were so many questions racing through all of the Brawlers' minds. First of all, how was Alice alive? Second, Why had she been hiding the fact that she was alive? Then, most importantly, How could she be a mutant? None of the Brawlers moved an inch as they watched Alice interact with the rest of the mutants.

Alice walked up Jonah and placed had hand on the back of his seat. "How bad is it?" she asked him looking at the images of the destruction.

"Bad...but not hopeless..." Jonah replied, typing away.

"See..." Mike started as he stood up. "if we didn't have to wear these stupid masks maybe we'd be able to see in front of us." He joked. Alice immediately turned her head to him.

"What then, dumbass?" she was cold, not the Alice the Brawlers had known. "People find out who we are? Our faces plastered across the world? Unable to live some sort of normal life?" She was getting more annoyed with every point she made. She began walking towards Mike slowly. "I'm not able to have that anymore...but you are. Don't throw that away." She calmed down as she spoke and her tone went to that of concern for her fellow mutant looking into his eyes, he simply nodded back and looked down because he knew what she had given up.

"Jane, I'll need your help with fixing this... Alice, you too." Jonah spoke out to the girls and they both nodded. Alice walked to the middle of the room and closed her eyes. The Brawlers watched as the friend they knew for so long seemed to struggle to breathe, slowly, and her eyes opened to complete black. Dark and deep. She took a deep breathe, "We're covered. Jane, Go." She said without moving and the black haired girl, who was still wearing her mask. She closed her eyes, took and deep breathe and slowly started moving her arms up, it looked like she struggled at first but she finally managed to place her arms in the air above her head, palms facing up.

In the blink of an eye the brawlers found themselves back at interspace headquarters.

"Wait what?!" Dan shouted, confused as to what had happened.

"How are we back here?!" Mira questioned, but nobody knew the answer. All the Brawlers looked around completely confused. They all turned to look at each other unable to make anything of the last hour.

_A couple hours later..._

The Brawlers were all sat around the conference table. Keith, Ace, Baron and Gus had joined them after Mira had called them in for an emergency meeting. They had been brought up to speed with everything the others had seen and learnt.

"Ok..." Keith started "So, mutant powers explain how she could have escaped the fire in one piece." he concluded.

Dan stood up slamming his hands on the table, "I think you're missing the point!" he was angry and confused. "Alice...she's one of them! She's lied to us! She's... she's not who what thought she was..." he calmed down and sat back down. Everyone was in the same state of confusion.

Runo had been sat in silence the whole time. The look on her face was the same as what she expressed when she had thought Alice had died. This time, in her mind Alice did die, the image of her in Runo's head was burnt forever. Julie had also sat in silence, but slightly more alive to the world than Runo. She looked over at her best friend who's blank expression was worrying her, but she didn't speak a word.

Keith looked at Gus who was already looking in his direction. He looked back at the table and sighed, "Now, I'm not going to lie...I had my...reservations about the accident, but I didn't imagine this..." he began. "and after that whole black eyes thing..." Keith stood and slowly walked to the massive computer in front of the table. "...you guys just were back here?" he asked starting to type.

Marucho nodded at him, "Right after that black haired girl did something with her arms" he told him.

Keith nodded, "Thought so...I have been doing some research on them. Examining every single video and photograph of them..." He revealed to the others who all looked up at the screen and 7 different files appeared in front of them. "I have managed to make profiles for the main mutants we've seen..." he clicked on the first file.

"First, I'm guessing the one you found out is called Jonah. He's the eldest, and like straight out of a superhero movie he seems to be gifted with enhanced human abilities like super speed and strength...then we have the male twins, Mike and Tyler. Mike seems like a bit of a loose canon but harmless unless provoked. He's gifted with metamorphosis..."

"Uuuuhhhhh..." both Dan and Baron sounded out in confusion.

"he can transform into anyone, anything..." videos played of all the mutants showing their powers. "His brother Tyler has the ability of disappearing, I can't tell if it's invisibility or materialisation."

"When did you do all this research?" Mira questioned her brother who looked at her and smiled slightly before returning to informing his team.

"Then we have..." he started hesitating after clicking a file open that started showing videos and photos of the mutant the brawlers now knew to be their friend. "...Alice... I am going to be honest, I haven't narrowed down her ability just yet. She seems to be able to materialise objects with her mind, create fields of energy so maybe she creates energy and can use it in multiple ways." he turned to his teammates who's faces all had dropped but were still listening to him. Keith signed and turned back to the screen. "Then there's Jane, from what I am able to tell she can revert time but it's more specific than that. Like she can choose what to rewind so it all goes back to a time of her choice. Which also might be how you got back here...she rewinded you physically back to before you went though the portal."

"Well, I guess that kinda makes sense..." Dan said as he tried to make sense of everything that was being thrown at him.

"Finally, we have these 2...children. They haven'y been involved in any fights but they showed up at some of the presidential events so I'm not aware of any abilities they may have." with that he tapped the keys one last time and videos and photographs of all the mutants were shown. The team sat in silence for a while, watching all the information. They had to learn a whole new Alice, one who was not the quiet, kind and calm Alice they had known for years.

Then everyone was alerted at the sound of the door opening, but somebody hadn't walked in. They all turned to the other chairs and noticed Runo had left. Dan and Julie ran after her but they didn't have to go far. She was sat on the floor, back against the wall in the hallway and her face in her hands.

Dan and Julie stopped in their tracks and looked at each other. Dan walked up beside her and sat down, immediately Runo buried her face into his shoulder and cried. This time because she knew, she had been lied to and deceived from day one.

**There you go, Hope you enjoyed it! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW ANY OF THE CHAPTERS. It would really help. Thank you!**


	5. Chapter 5

Marucho and Keith were at the controls working on something, Ace, Mira, Baron and Gus were still sat round the table; Runo had ran out not 5 minutes ago. The doors slid open and she walked through with Dan and Julie.

"Sorry about that..." she apologised for her outburst.

Mira looked at her and shook her head, "It's understandable...it's crazy" she said still completely baffled. Everyone shared a long sigh. Then Dan looked over at the two at the controls.

"Hey, what you guys doing?" he questioned but neither of them turned away.

Ace walked up behind Dan, "They think they can break into the security cameras in the lab in Moscow." he caught up his teammate.

Dan looked back at Marucho and Keith with surprise on his face, "You guys can do that?" he asked while walking up behind them.

Marucho nodded without taking his gaze away from the screen, "It's not the hard, as we have all the location details...all we have to do is bypass the security frame and reverse the signal..." he went on the explain.

"It would give us a secret eye on the inside, maybe we can figure somethings out..." Keith added still typing.

Dan nodded and left them to it, walking back to the table and sat down next to Mira. Everyone sat in silence while Keith and Marucho typed away.

Ace then realised something, "Hey..." he started and everyone at the table turned to look at him. "...where's Shun? Surely he should be told about all this?" he said. Then everyone started wondering how they could have forgotten about Shun.

"I did call and text him when we got back from the lab...he never showed or texted back...might have turned his phone off to brood in silence." Dan told the group.

"In his deference, he still thinks Alice is dead..." Mira reminded him to which he gave a a nod of understanding.

"Guys!" Marucho yelled out and everyone turned to face him and saw a window with a live video feed in different boxes showing multiple angles of the lab. The whole team ran up to the screen and watch the scenes unfold. They could see them all, including Alice, in the lab talking and looking at screens

"Wow, it's really her..." Baron commented.

Runo sighed and nodded, "It's her alight... but she's different...it's not our Alice..." she said in a sad tone. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Dan giving her a comforting look.

"We'll figure this out, don't worry." he reassured her, and they all looked back back at the screen.

_In the Gehabich lab..._

Alice and Jonah were at the control typing away trying to update the warning system.

Mike watched up behind them, "Thanks for not...you know...killing me..." he thanked Alice.

She turned to look at him, "Just don't be that stupid with it again...what we can do can save lives, but if used in the wrong way..." She didn't even have to finish her sentence he knew what she meant and he nodded at her before she went back to the screen and he started to walk out of the room.

The doors opened and a little girl ran in to Jonah. "Jonah! Jonah!" she shouted at the young man who turned his attention over to her.

"What's wrong Kyla?" he asked slightly concerned

The little girl caught her breathe and then finally said, "A man is at the school! He said he needs to speak to you."

Alice turned her head to Jonah, "What's this about?" she questioned.

Jonah stood up and sighed, "Probably just some government paperwork to fill out, there's a lot of that recently..." he trailed off as he left the room. Alice's gaze followed him until he was out. She sighed and left the screen and walked around the massive lab and looked around. She looked lost in thought.

"What you thinking about?" Tyler asked her.

Alice just shook her head and sighed through her nose as she pursed her lips. "Everything's changed so much... it's still weird..." she told him.

Tyler looked around with Alice, "It had to change though...it wasn't safe..." Alice immediately nodded and looked down at the floor.

"I know, it's just still hard." she said looking back at him.

"I know...I'm sorry" he said to her. They looked at each other and Alice smiled at him through her sad expression.

"It's for the best." She reassured him and herself. Tyler nodded slowly and walked out of the room, leaving Alice alone.

_Back in interspace command centre..._

The Brawlers had been watching the whole exchange through the cameras. Alice was now alone and had gone back to working on the computer.

"We'll leave it on and monitor it so if something comes up we'll let everyone else know." Keith said to the rest of the team and they nodded and all left, leaving Keith and Gus alone in the room. They stared at the screen where Alice was looking through some data.

"There's something still off about this..." Gus started and this time, instead of dismissing him, Keith simply nodded his head and started thinking.

"It's just not off...it's completely suspicious..." he started, "I think there's a lot more than we are being told and shown." he added as they kept watching.

_Later that night in the Gehabich lab... _

Alice was still in the lab but she wasn't typing or calculating or anything. Instead, she stared at the smaller screen in front of her, sad. She was looking at pictures of her days with the brawlers, from those first days 4 years ago. Her eyes started to water up as she scrolled through. She had been ripped away from her normal life. She knew why. It wasn't safe. Nobody was safe around her, not anymore. No matter how much she understood that, she regretted the way it all went down. She had to go into hiding, only leaving for missions and only wearing a mask. She was trapped due to her own existence.

_The next day at Marucho's temporary home... _

While his home was being rebuilt after the fire, Marucho and his family were using one of their smaller but still luxury homes in the city. Because the lab was underground in a reinforced part of the building most of the equipment had survived the fire. The transporter link that was in his lab had been placed in the new house. Marucho was trying to organise everything in his new space with Dan helping him out.

"Duuuude... this is taking ages!" Dan complained dropping to the ground in exhaustion.

"We're almost done, Dan! we've only got these few boxes of papers left!" Marucho reassured him holding two boxes which stacked up higher than him.

"Guys!" A familiar female voice called out down the hallway. Both boys looked up at the door as it opened and Runo barged in with Julie close behind her.

"Runo? What's up?" Dan asked her slightly worried at her outburst. She looked at the boys in front of her and put her hands on her hips.

"I've decided... I'm going to Moscow to confront Alice." She informed the boys who looked surprised but deep down knew something like this would happen.

"Runo, that's crazy! What if something happens? It's not safe!" Marucho warned her but she had made up her mind.

"I'm going. I've decided. You guys can come with me or stay I don't care. I need answers." Runo announced to all her friends. They all looked at each other and their looks went from concern to understanding. They all knew it was happening now.

"Let's do it!" Dan said to his team and looked at Runo and have a her a reassuring smile. She smiled back at him but still worry overcame her. She was going for clarity but she had no idea what she would find.

"I'll call the others at meet us at head quarters. Safety in numbers!" Marucho told the room running to the computer at the desk behind him. Dan walked up to Runo and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll find her and sort this out." He told her to which she nodded her head snapping out of her worried state. She had no idea how much she would discover just on the next few hours.


	6. Chapter 6

"Before we fire up the transporter, everyone is on board with the plan?" Keith asked the group as they got ready to travel through the transporter. Everyone nodded back at him.

"Yeah yeah, we go through, we lay low and we approach when it's safe. Can we go now?" Runo said impatiently as she walked to the portal. Keith sighed and entered the coordinates from the Gehabich lab in Russia.

"Now, I think we'll be fine for a while in the lab. From the camera feed nobody seems to be around." Marucho said walking to the transporter with Keith.

"It's time to get some answers." Runo whispered to herself as the light of the transporter signalled that there was no going back. It was time for an explanation.

_In the Gehabich lab..._

The brawlers jumped through the transporter into the lab. "Everybody keep low, don't stick out just incase." Mira warned everyone, especially gesturing at Dan and Baron.

"Hey whats that supposed to mean?!" baron whined out.

Mira shoved him in anger, "It means, don't do THAT you idiot." she whispered angrily through her teeth. Baron sulked down understanding he had to be quite.

The team took a minute to look around. Some of the equipment had been taken out from under the large white sheets and the room was looking a lot more like it used to.

"This is insane..." Julie whispered and she looked at Runo who was on her right. Her expression was sad and nervous. Julie took her friend's hand and smiled, "Come on, let's go find Alice." Runo nodded and smiled back at Julie.

"We should split up, cover more ground quicker." Ace suggested.

Runo nodded in agreement, "Ok Julie, Dan, Mira and I will take the house if you guys take a look around the forest." Runo suggested, nobody was going to disagree with her the way she had been feeling so they all agreed and they approached the door. Dan slowly opened it and peaked round to make sure the coast was clear.

"Ok, seems clear to me." he told the team and they all slowly walked out making sure they were aware of their surroundings. There was something different, but they couldn't put their finger on what. It was a feeling, the ambience had completely changed.

"Ok, everyone keeps your comms open just incase something happens." Keith warned the group before they split off to explore the place they thought they knew like the back of their hand.

_At the Gehabich house..._

Looking at the building in front of her, Runo couldn't help but think of the memories she had of the house. As they approached the house, keeping low and hidden, they noticed people were in the house and the windows were open. They walked up on to the porch and crouched below the open window to listen to what was happening. There was laughing and so many different voices coming from the room. Runo decided to take a peak through the window and saw Mike, Tyler, Jonah and a group of 4 other young people they didn't recognise. They were all hanging out in the living room, joking and chatting. No sign of Alice though.

"Urgh, she's not here..." Julie sighed as she sat back down under the window to hide, the others followed suit.

"Where could she be? It's not like she actually ever left the property." Runo stated

"That's weird right? She never left. She was always here." Dan commented. The girls all looked at him and understood what he meant. In the years they had known Alice, except the couple time she went to Wardington or Vestal to help the Brawlers, she never seemed to leave the property where the house and lab were.

The sounds of laughing and chatting increased inside the house. "They're really rowdy, how did we never hear or see any of them?" Julie asked the group.

Mira sighed and shook her head, "You can't see them if they don't want to be seen." she said.

_In the forest..._

Keith, Ace, Baron, Gus and Marucho we walking around the forest around the Gehabich property.

"It is me or is this really confusing? I feel like we've been walking in circles!" Baron said quickly looking around at the trees surrounding them.

"It's a forest, Baron. It's confusing." Ace reminded his friend who was freaking out. "But I get what you mean... it's a weird feeling." he added. Just in the moment there was a loud crashing sound, the boys looked over in the distance and could see a couple of the trees falling up ahead.

"Let's go!" Keith told the team and they all started running towards the destruction, all but Baron who was apprehensive but started following his friends after saying, "Oh sure...let's run towards the killer mutant rampage!"

They approached a tree just before a clearing where the trees had fallen. They all hid behind the tree while peaking around to see four people in front of them. Two of them where the little kids they had seen in the videos form the lab camera. The other two were Alice and the Jane girl, who was wearing a mask.

"Well, at least we found her." Ace said still watching from behind the tree.

They watched as the children were sat on the side at the foot of a tree. Alice was to a side with her hands on her hips watching Jane.

"Ok, is that enough?" Alice asked the black haired girl.

Jane nodded and took a deep breath in and placed her hands on either side of her head, a weird aura surrounded her.

"What's going on?" Baron whispered to the boys, but nobody answered.

After a couple minutes Jane sigh and the aura disappeared; she looked to her left and pointed down at the ground ahead. "It's in the house. Under the couch." She announced in a slightly annoyed tone.

Alice sighed and looked at the kids, "Come on then." she said and they both stood up.

"Sorry for wasting your time..." The little girl said looking sad and shy altogether.

Alice walked up to her and crouched down to meet her eyes. "Don't apologise. You though you lost it. So let's go get it." she said picking her up in her arms and walking in the direction of the house with the little boy ahead of them and Jane just behind him.

The boys stopping peaking round the tree and regrouped behind it.

"Let's follow them, we can't lose her now." Keith said and they all followed the group back to the house.

_At the house... _

Dan, Runo, Julie and Mira had moved to behind the side wall of the house and were trying to figure out what to do next. Suddenly they heard a car park up in front of the house. They tried to see who it was but they had already made their way to the door and inside the house.

"Who was that?" Mira asked and they all shrugged and snuck up to the window again this time just hiding under it. Runo made her way to the door and tried to listen and see through the very slight gap between the door and the wall, but she couldn't make anything out.

"Hey where are the girls?" they heard a new but familiar voice ask.

Dan knew exactly who that voice belonged to but it didn't hit him at first. Then, he realised. "No...is that...?" he said looking at the girls. They all looked at Runo who had just managed to see through the gap and make out who this new person was. Her stomach dropped and she gasped. Her mind went blank after that and was overcome with anger and even more confusion than she had already experienced. She took a deep breathe and with one intensely strong kick she whacked the door open. "YOU ASSHOLE!" she yelled out.

Everything frozen. Everyone in the room and out were in shock. Runo was hyperventilating. She wasn't just mad, she was furious. She didn't just feel hurt, she felt betrayed. The only person who could match her feeling of shock was the person she directed her anger to in that moment. Shun. He was there. Seemingly fully aware of whatever secret life Alice had been living. He didn't know what to say, his eyes were wide and his moth slightly agape. All the others in the room were completely still, mouths hanging from their jaws in shock. Finally, Shun snapped out of his frozen state.

"Runo... what are you.." he started but couldn't finish before Dan and the girls came out behind her and he realised what was happening. He looked at his friends in front of him. "Look...I can explain..." he started but Runo cut him off very quickly.

"Oh you can?! Cause it seems like you knew Alice was alive all along and didn't think to ever bring it up!" she yelled almost bursting into tears. Just then Jonah stood up and walked up between Runo and Shun.

"Ok, I think we all have to calm down and..." he tried to calm Runo down but she wasn't having it and interrupted him.

"Oh you can sit right back down!" she yelled in his face.

Mira walked up behind her, "Runo, calm it. Let him talk." she said.

Runo took a deep breathe in before blowing out all the air, trying to calm herself down but she was still very angry. "Fine." she said bluntly putting both her hands in the air before crossing her arms.

Jonah looked at her then Shun to look back at Runo, "Ok I think we should all sit down and talk." he said gesturing towards the couches. Runo looked very apprehensive at first but slowly made her way to sit down. Mike and Tyler looked at her and moved out of her way, so did all the other people in the room. The Brawlers all followed Runo but Dan stopped in front of Shun and crossed his arms, his expression blank.

"I can't believe you, man..." He said full of disappointment.

Shun looked at his best friend, also with barley any emption on him, "You don't understand, Dan. I couldn't say anything." he said trying to whisper trying not to provoke Runo's anger again.

"You couldn't tell your best friend that his girlfriend's best friend faked her own death and was in hiding? Oh and that, by the way, is some sort of superhuman mutant?" Dan had cracked, he was hurt beyond belief.

Shun understood that he was angry but couldn't find the words to explain himself so suddenly. "Dan...I just couldn't..." he managed to whisper out.

"Why...?" Dan asked, looking for one little bit of humanity from the boy he thought of as his brother.

"Because I asked him to..." a female voice form the door added. Everyone turned around to see Alice in the doorway, holding the little girl they learnt was named Kyla. Alice sighed before putting the little girl down. The Brawlers were back into the frozen state, not knowing what to say or do.

Alice looked at her ex-team mates with surrender in her eyes. "I need to explain..."


	7. Chapter 7

The room was completely silent. Nobody moved, though the brawlers all stared at Alice in disbelief. They knew she was alive for a few days now but to see her in person was a completely different story. It made it all more real.

Runo's eye started to water but she didn't move an inch. Alice sighed and looked at the little girl at her side, "Kyla, you and Dylan go to the hub." she told her. Kyla looked around the room for a second, hesitating to go, "Now." Alice ordered in a low crackling voice. With that the little boy who was hovering by the door way walked in and took Kyla's hand to guide her out and through the house. With the sound of a door closing Runo snapped out of her trance, "Alice..." she started with anger, hurt and sadness all in one. Alice quickly looked back at her and interrupted, "Please..." she started but paused to look her best friend straight in her eyes. She took a deep breathe before she finished, "...just let me explain then you can shout all you want." she pleaded.

The brawlers knew that they feelings of confusion and hurt were about to be overshadowed by whatever was really going on. Runo looked at the floor and simply nodded at Alice who gestured at the couches and chairs behind them. Just in that second Keith, Ace, Baron, Gus and Marucho came through the door having heard the whole conversation prior. Alice turned her head to meet them and she simply gestured to the seats again.

Everyone else had made themselves scarce other than Jonah, Mike, Tyler and Jane who hung about the open plan kitchen joint to the living area, still closer enough to be part of the conversation. Alice remained standing and Shun leaned on the wall by her. They all waited for her start talking but she remained hesitant, she quickly looked at Jonah for a split second before nodded. She meet everyones' eyes once more before taking a deep breathe.

"To understand what happened that night, I need you to know a lot more..." she started looking at the ground, scared to go on.

"Ok then." Keith said breaking the silence, encouraging her to go on with a blank stare.

"Ok so...you guys know now that I'm...a...a mutant..." she hesitated again but picked up quickly. "I have been since birth and I have been fully aware of my abilities the whole time." She went on to say. "I had to keep it secret because of the danger involved with it, especially more recently with titans breaking through the dimensional wall." She finished. She was met with a few confused looks so she start the explain, "Titans are those creature you might have seen us fight, they're coming through rips in the dimensional walls. We're still trying to figure that one out; but, anyway... we were held to a contract of complete confidentiality by the global assembly, they represent all the major powers on Earth and safe guard the human race as a whole."

"I knew the governments where onto more than they let off." Dan added in a moment of simplicity.

Alice smiled at her friend, "There were...accidents that happened last year where a small group of humans who knew about us and our identities got captured by the titans, so we had to go into hiding and nobody could know. We've lived in hiding our whole lives because we were deemed a threat to human kind until a couple years ago when we signed the Earth protection agreement."

Ace looked up, "That's what the announcement was about the other day?" he asked.

Alice nodded and added, "Yeah, we were on a trial run for the last couple years but they decided to make it public and deem us safe for humans. This also meant that everybody knew about us. Hence the masks and hence..." she trailed off.

"Hence faking your death." Runo finished bluntly, staring at the floor. Alice looked her her but wasn't met with her stare, she slowly nodded.

"Yeah... That night...was...a lot..." Alice started to tell them the story of what really happened.

_That night at Marucho's party..._

Alice was out on the balcony looking out at the city in front of her. "I still don't get why you hang around these humans." a voice from behind her called out. She quickly turned and saw Jonah sat up on the top of the frame that surrounded the doors.

"Jesus christ...don't do that!" she reprimanded the man in front of her. He chuckled and jumped down to meet her, Alice turned back to the view and he walked up to the edge of the balcony. They stood in silence for a moment before he broke the silence, "You know... you don't belong to this world...you're different from them..."

Alice gave a small sad smile, still looking out. "I know that. I just can't seem to say goodbye." she told him.

Jonah turned his head slightly to look at her, he understood her but she had to face reality. "Alice...I'm going to be honest, I thought this who Bakugan Brawlers thing was over 2 years ago after the whole Masquerade incident... we can't risk anything like that happening again. It's not safe. Not for you...and not for them." he reminded her of the conversation they had had many times before. Alice took a very deep breath in slowly getting emotional but not a tear in sight.

"I know..." she whispered bitting her lip to stop herself from breaking. They stood in silence for a moment longer before he went back to looking out.

"The plan is going on as planned. Be ready." he said starting to turn and walk away "You have 15 minutes." he told her before jumping up on the roof and walking away.

Alice stood there in silence, leaning on the balcony side and looking out in a daze.

"You really should be out here alone.." a voice started behind her, she didn't turn as she knew who it was and she smiled. "People will start to think you're a hermit or something." Alice turned her head to her right to see Shun standing beside her.

She chuckled softly but remained in silence for a while longer. Her smile faded slowly as she recalled the conversation she had just had with Jonah.

"It's happening tonight." she said. Shun, knowing what she meant by that, shifted slightly but not wanting to call attention he composed himself and slowly nodded as he still looked out in front of him. Once again, they stood in silence for a moment, taking in the view and the moment.

"We have just under 15 minutes. When the alarm goes make sure you're the last one out. We'll take care of it from there." She informed him. Once again he nodded and started to walk away when Alice spoke up again, "Whatever happens..." she looked at him directly in the eyes.

"I know." he said to her softly and he walked away to get ready.

Alice was on the verge of breaking down but she couldn't crack now, it was too important.

_In the present..._

The Brawlers were all listening, it was crazy that this had all happened right in front of them. Alice paused to let it all sink in.

"So you guys made my house explode...?" Marucho ask confused as to why his friend would destroy his home.

Alice quickly shook her head, "It wasn't meant to go that way. After the alarm went off and you all started leaving..." she continued.

_Back to that night..._

The alarm was sounding hard and the last people were exiting the hall. As Shun left the room last as planned he Alice walked back into the room from the balcony. She made eye contact with Shun and gave him a nod seconds before he shut the doors. It was time.

Alice closed her eyes, tok a deep breathe and when she opened them again her eyes shone a bright white light for a few seconds and just like magic, 4 people walking right through the wall as if it wasn't there. Alice's eyes went back to normal and she turned to the 4 people in front of her. All of them wearing masks and their jumpsuits.

"Right, Mike and Tyler, you go to the hallway and make sure nobody is coming through. Jane go get what we need." Jonah commanded and the 3 left the room to complete the plan.

Jonah looked at Alice, "Go get the transporter ready for us to leave, we'll be there in a couple minutes." she nodded and gave the room one last look before starting to walk out.

Jonah was left alone. He looked around the room, all the drinks that had been left on the side by the guests, the music still playing on the speakers. Then the twins walked back in as Alice opened the door. "The fire fighters are here." Tyler announced to the two in the room. Jonah and Alice looked at each other; Alice nodded, knowing what she should do. She looked down and closed her eyes. All of a sudden an aura surrounded each of the mutants.

They watched, very still, as the fire fighters ran into the room and surveyed each corner. Alice began to struggle and this caught Jonah's attention and he looked concerned and was worried they might be seen if she lost her concentration. All was good and the fire team left the room and the auras disappeared as Alice fell to the ground trying to catch her breath. Mike and Tyler went to her to help her back up.

"I'm ok... let's get on with it." She told her teammates and she walked out the room.

The boys looked at each other and they knew they had to act fast before people started walking back in. The doors opened and Jane came running in. "Got it! We don't have much time." she said handing over a bottle of vodka she had taken from the kitchen with a handkerchief in it.

"It should cause enough to take the one room." she added before Alice came walking in, she joined her team.

"Transporter is ready, we need to hurry though." Alice warned then Jonah took a lighter out his pocket.

"Get ready." he said before he lit the hanging handkerchief and threw the bottle at the curtains. The explosion was minor but powerful enough to cause half of the hall to go up in flames very quickly. The team started to run out, but then Alice noticed something. A tank of some kind sitting in a corner, she squinted to read what was on it and immediately was panicked. "Jonah!" she shouted and he looked at her then followed her gaze to the tank that wore an explosive and flammable warning. He immediately went into panic in his mind but it was too late, the fire had reached the foot of the tank, Jonah grabbed Alice's arm and they ran out towards the stairwell.

As soon as they got in, it happened. The explosion that occurred was so loud and bog that even the whole stairwell shook. The whole team kept running towards the transporter. After a few minutes of running in the crumbling building they made it to the lab.

Mike and Tyler had just jumped in but Jane was waiting for Jonah and Alice to catch up.

"Go!" Jonah yelled taking both girl into the transporter with them seconds before the building came crashing down.

In the Gehabich lab...

They all lay on the ground of the lab, out of breath and gasping for air. Mike got up on his elbows still struggling to breath, "Man, the was way too close!" he said between short breaths.

Jonah managed to stand up, with a little bit of stumbling and shaking. When he managed to stand with no issues he looked around the room to make sure all of them had made it through. "It's done." he said then looked at Alice who was already say up with her arms hugging her legs. She nodded at him, she was now dead to the world.

_In the present..._

It was a lot to take in. Runo was trying to process it all at once but just couldn't fit it all in at once. Then, it dawned on her, "Wait" she started, making everyone turn to her. "What about you?" she asked looking at Shun. "What have you got to do with it?" She asked again.

Jane jumped down from the kitchen island she had been sat on and walked towards the group, "We've tried separating them but you just can't separating true love." she mocked looking at Alice who looked at her like she was about to tell her off but instead she met Runo's gaze.

"Wait...really?" Runo asked Alice and she nodded back slowly.

"At least that one makes sense..." Dan cut in and looked at his best friend and gave him a small smile and Shun gave one back.

"Wait...why are you still wearing a mask?" Runo asked turning to face Jane, who immediately looked at Alice. Runo turned her gaze to her as well and was confused at the exchange of looks and noticed that the three other mutant boys in the kitchen were all looking at Alice as well. Alice looked hesitant. Runo kept shifting her gaze at the two girls looking for an answer.

"Well?" she asked, confused as to why nobody had answered her. Jane looked at Alice one more time, looking like she was looking for approval. Alice nodded, seemingly giving her that approval.

Jane smiled and shrugged, "It's your wish..." she said looking down and putting her hand of her mask and slowly removing it from her face. She looked up to meet Runo's eyes and instantly Runo gasped.

"No way." she muttered. Jane looked exactly like Alice. Identical other than the hair. Jane smiled cockily and looked around at all the other brawlers who looked just as shocked.

"What can I say? Twins run in the family." Jane commented. Which, yet again, confused the brawlers. Jane picked up on that quickly. " Oh, we're all related." she cleared, again in a cocky tone of voice. Runo mouth fell open, "What?" she said in shock. She looked at all of them and she could see the resemblance.

Mike walk towards Jane, "Yeah... me, him, him, her and her. Oh and those two little ones too." he said point at himself, Tyler, Jonah, Jane and Alice.

Runo looked at all of them and sighed, "Anything else?" she asked looking at Alice.

Alice looked at her and could see the confusion and hurt in her eyes, "That's all the main things." she said to her trying to reassure her, which was difficult in this moment. Everyone was silent for a few moments until Jonah stepped forward.

"OK, I think everyone's had enough for today... and we just let two seven year olds go to the hub alone so..." he trailed off, pointing his thumb to the back room.

Keith looked at Jonah then at Alice, "The hub?" he asked. Alice looked at him and then at her brother and smiled.

"Fine" Jonah started walking to the doorway leading to the hallway followed by Mike and Tyler. "Let's go." he said gesturing to the hallway.

Alice smiled at her brother and stood up, "It's good, I promise."


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry! Life started happening and I stopped writing. Got a few chapters written out so I'll be uploading a couple times a week :)**

The whole team followed Alice and her siblings to a door in the hallway. She opened it and it looked like there were long steep stairs that disappeared into the darkness. Alice and Jane walked down the stairs. Jonah stood at the door frame with his brothers and gestures for the brawlers to walk down. They all looked at each other in hesitation before one by one they decided to follow the girls down. The twins and Jonah followed right behind them, closing the door that lead to the house. "Where are we going?" Julie asked, holding on to Runo in fear.

Without stopping Alice smiles and said, "You guys have been here loads of times without actually _being here_..." the brawlers shared a look of confusion. There was a slither of light coming through large double doors at the foot of the stairs.

Alice opened the two grand doors and what the brawlers saw shocked them. With blinding lights and people running around, an underground city, right under the whole Gehabich plot of land. It looked almost like your average neighbourhood with houses, cafes and a lot more. Alice and her family walked up in front of the brawlers and smiled at their awe.

"This is..." Dan started looking around some more but losing his words.

"INSANE!" Baron yelled finishing Dan's sentence.

"This was under the house the whole time?" Runo asked turning to Alice; who nodded back at her friend before looking back at the underground city.

"About 10 years ago there was an incident which led all the leading powers of Earth to hunt mutants down and forced us into hiding. We were lucky enough to have the house and we noticed that it was dug up under for sewage and pipe work so we made it work." She went on to say.

Jonah stepped forward and walked towards the city with his back to the brawlers. "There are tunnels that connect the city to 5 major transport links across the world. We found and gave a place to every mutant who was chased away from the humans. There are hundreds of people just like us passing, working and living in these tunnels. I don't think I have to say it but don't go off on your own or get on the wrong side of anyone here, might cost you your life." He warned the humans behind him, turning to them.

The brawlers were still in awe of the the city of tunnels in front of them and got lost in the wonder and presence of it all.

"Alice!" a voice called out and an older man in his late 30s stepped out of a building. Everybody turned to look at the man who was waving at Alice.

"Oh shit. I forgot." she said looking at Jonah.

"It's cool, go." he said back to her "We'll take care of them until you're done" he reassured her.

"Wait where you going?" Runo asked Alice as she was starting to walk away.

"We've all got to earn our keep!" she said throwing her arms in the air before running off the the building.

There was suddenly a sense of uneasiness among the brawlers now Alice was gone. Jonah turned to them with his siblings and Shun by his side and smiled. "Come on, we'll show you around." he said tilting his head to the buildings.

The brawlers were apprehensive to move, they looked at Shun for reassurance. "Come on.." Jane started looking at the humans in front of her, crossing her arms. "We don't bite...much.." she trailed off making eye contact with Keith before walking off which confused him. The mutants tried to contain their laughter at their sisters remark and actions. Jonah rolled his eyes before walking behind his sister and everybody else followed.

Dan walked up to Shun and nudged his arm, "So this is where you've been?" Dan asked him in a whisper.

Shun nodded slowly before looking up ahead again, "Yeah, most of the time. I'm not like them but I help out here most days." Dan stared up at his best friend slowly beginning to understand a lot more about him than he'd ever known.

_Some time later..._

A couple hours had passed and Alice's family had been showing the brawlers around the facilities the hub had to offer. It was nothing fancy but all the essentials; homes, energy, shops, bars, parks and even a school. It was like stepping into an alternate dimension to them. They learnt how mutants from all over use the transporter system to teleport to the nearest tunnel access points. How the school was started to teach young mutants to use their abilities for good and how to utilise them to their full potential. During the day they had split up as the were drawn to different things. Dan, Runo, Julie and Marucho had stuck with Mike, Tyler and Shun on the main street while Keith, Mira, Gus, Ace and Baron had gone along with Jane and Jonah to the school.

"So the kids come here as soon as they find out about their abilities?" Mira asked the two leading the way.

Jonah nodded, "Yeah, I mean sometimes they don't know until later on. That's where we come in and follow leads on new mutants around the world to bring them here." he told her as they stopped walking.

"Well what if they don't want to come here?" Ace asked and both Jane and Jonah chuckled as they sat up on the short wall of the school.

"That's never really been an issue. You know, the whole superhuman abilities make it pretty unbearable when it comes to a normal life. Most kids are in situations where they're mistreated..." Jane started.

"...so when we show up and tell them there's a better place, there isn't much of a resistance." Jonah finished. There was a few seconds of silence as the Vestals kept looking around at the buildings around them. It was unreal, Almost like an old university building but with features like the hologram signs that made it look all so high tech.

Baron turned back to the two sitting on the wall, "What about you guys? Where were you before all this?" he asked. The siblings looked at him then at each other and smiled. Jonah jumped off the wall and faced them, "Who do you think made all this?" he said before starting to walk on along the path. The Vestals' surprised faces faded quickly as they walked on to catch up with him, Keith being behind still taking in his surroundings. He turned his head to the wall where Jane was still sitting staring at him. She had a cheeky smile on her face which made Keith uncomfortable so he started moving towards the group. "W-we should probably catch up." he said trying to walk ahead but Jane stepped out in front of him. "Can I help you?" he asked her, with slight sarcasm in his tone. Jane looked at him, hands place on her sides and she studied him. Her hand then went to his cheek and she gently tapped twice, "You'll be fun..." she whispered before she winked at him and she turned and walked away to reach the others. Keith stood there still confused and slightly embarrassed but decided to start walking behind her.

_With the others..._

"This is MAD!" Dan exclaimed looking at his surrounding.

Runo hit his head which made him trip over, "Can you keep quiet! Honestly, have a little respect!" She told him off and Dan sulked.

The two brothers chuckled and turned to the group while still walking, "It's alright, we're a pretty loud group down here." Mike told them.

The group started looking around and noticed people around where stopping what they were doing to watch them. "What's wrong..?" Julie whispered to the brothers and they stopped to look around, then back at the humans and smiled.

"We've never really had the best relationship with humans..." Tyler started

"So they don't know if they can trust you yet, but I guess they'll get use to it." Mike finished shrugging and smiling at the group to reassure them.

The Brawlers felt uneasy at the fact they might be unwanted by a group of mutants with superpowers. Dan gulped as he looked at the groups of big muscular mutants that had gathered outside one of the shops, they stood with their arms crossed looking back at him.

"At ease soldiers" Alice's voice called out in a slight chuckle from just down the path, ahead of them. She walked up to her friends giving the guys at the shop front some side-eye, telling them to leave.

The group followed Alice and her brother into the next building. It was a bar, slightly bare in aesthetic and lighting, and it seemed to be shut. Mike and Tyler walked behind the bar and started pouring themselves drinks. The Brawlers took seats at the bar in front of them while Alice opened the shutter at the front of the bar and then walked towards them.

"They'll get use to it, don't worry" she assured them, "It can just take some time" she added, leaning on the bar top.

"How long did it take for them to be ok with Shun?" Runo asked the ginger girl. Alice smiled and chuckled slightly at the question as she got up from the bar top and looked at her brothers, then back at her friends.

"That... is a bit of a long story..." she started but was interrupted by the door opening and the rest of the group walked in.

"...which might be a good one to tell over the fire?" Jonah added to the tail of his sister's comment.

They all walked in and Alice walked out to the front of the bar, "Tonight?" she asked Jonah.

He nodded at her, "I think your friends are gonna want to see how we like to enjoy ourselves." he smiled. Alice smiled back and nodded, she turned to the bar where all the Brawlers were chatting about what they had seen. She sighed as tensed up at the thought of her friends being here. She then felt a hand on the right side of her waist pulling her in slightly. She turned her head and met Shun's gaze looking at her, "It's about time huh?" he whispered to her looking over at their friends.

Alice nodded slowly and sighed to relax, "It really is." she whispered back. Shun held her tighter to him and sighed himself; they both stood in silence for a couple seconds taking it all in.

"Do you think we should tell them?" she whispered even softer than before, Shun looked at her, understanding what she was referring to.

"I think we should let them take this in first, then we'll tell them." he told her. Alice smiled at her boyfriend as she met his gaze.

She bowed her head down to place a soft kiss on his shoulder before laying her head on it. Shun held her close, it was going to be a long process.


	9. Chapter 9

**Got loads of hits on the last chapter, so thank you! :) Also, wanted to just say that the character ages are different in this story. The first season would have happened when Alice and Shun were 15 and New Vestroia they would have been 18. So right now they would be 19 going on 20, all very confusing.**

A couple hours had passed and a massive bonfire had been planned and set up on just outside the original Gehabich house. There were maybe close to a hundred people along with the Brawlers walking through the event. Some playing games, sports, chilling and eating; it all seemed so normal. Alice and her siblings had changed out of the uniforms and into normal everyday clothes. Alice was in a long sleeved white t-shirt and blue bell bottom jeans. Her brothers in just plain t-shirts and jeans, Jane in black skinny jeans and a dark red top.

The Brawlers, apart from Keith and Gus were getting food with Alice, who had Kyla holding on to her. Take away all the enhanced humans and it would just be a normal gathering, which is what made Keith and Gus uneasy, it was all too normal. Something was off and they couldn't put their finger on what.

The group sat on the tree trunks around one of the fires that were burning. Things seemed to be going well, this gave Alice a lot of peace of mind; but there was still a lot to work through. Alice looked over beside her to Runo who seemed lost in her thoughts as she looked at the people having fun around her.

"You ok?" Alice whispered over to her, bringing her back to the moment.

Runo nodded slowly, her face still blank with the slightest tone of worry, "Yeah... it just... a lot, I guess..." She started.

Alice understood this, it was a lot even for her at times and now her friends had been thrown into this world they had no idea about. Alice looked down at the ground and smiled somewhat sadly, "I get it, it's crazy really." Runo looked up at her friend, she saw the same girl she'd known for years but there was definitely something different.

She smiled at Alice and gave a small giggle which made Alice lift her gaze to meet hers. "It's insane." Runo added through her laugh which mad Alice join in with the laughing. She nodded back at her.

As they stopped laughing Runo looked back at her, "I'm just glad you're ok." she revealed. Alice smiled and placed her hand on her friend's, would things finally start to work out for them all?

"So what's this long story about then?" Dan managed to ask through him stuffing his face. Alice looked at him confused then she remembered.

"Oh I love this story!" a female voice jokingly mocked from out behind them and Jane, Mike and Tyler walked into the circle. Jane sat down near Shun and her brothers beside her on the ground.

"No honestly, it's the best! Decades of rules and traditions thrown to the wind." Alice and Shun both let out a small slightly embarrassed chuckle.

"So...?" Julie urged, wanting to know more. Alice looked up at the boy beside her and nodded to give him the go-ahead. Keith and Gus' attention was caught as they were interested to know more, so they moved to lean on the trees just behind the group.

"Basically started when I ran away from home when I was 10.." Shun started

_9 years ago..._

_A little 10 year old Shun was walking around the dark streets of Wardington. He had just gotten into a fight with his grandfather about not going to see his mother in the hospital. Shun didn't want to see that, his mother dying. He was so young but knew exactly what was happening._

_As he walked through the streets he knew this wouldn't last. In a couple hours he'd wonder back home and just give into any punishment the old man would lay on him, it's happened before. He was alone, sure he had Dan bit he wouldn't get it, nobody would. Just as he was lost in that thought there was a loud crash a couple of streets down. With more courage than his years Shun ran towards the sound. That's when he saw it. A car had stopped in the middle of the road crushed by the weight of the creature that stood on top of it. Shun stared in horror and hid behind a trash can but kept looking. _

_It was a horrid looking thing, almost as if it was made out of molten lava; cracks would form and close on it's surface showing the hot fiery core. It turned to face the direction where Shun was hiding which made him move back to hide. Just then, the sound of somebody stepping on the top of the trash can startled Shun. A boy, not older than 16, jumped on to the ground in front of the creature._

"_Now!" he yelled and a group of 3 more kids, seemingly younger, ran into Shun's field of vision. Ice came flying from one of them and covered the creature completely. _

"_Take cover! Jen, hold him!" that same boy yelled out to the other and they ran away. Shun was confused as to what was happening so he stepped out from behind the trash cans. That's when a huge energy shift was felt coming from the creature. It exploded into millions of shards of ice that were sent flying; some right towards Shun, who had been sent to the floor by the wave of energy that hit a split second before. _

_The sharp ice shards were flying towards him too fast and this was not going to go well, he closed his eyes ready for impact. That's when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, but no ice. He slowly opened his eyes, almost certain he'd died, to see a hand reaching out in front of him. He turned to see a small girl around his age kneeling beside him. He stared in shock at her, then back at her hand which seemed to be holding the ice shards inches from his body almost like a shield. She lowered her arm and the ice fell to the ground. Still in shock he looked back at her; her long orange hair fell partly in front of her face and she blew it off. She placed a finger to her mouth, signalling for him to be quiet, which he did. _

_He sat in silence on the ground, confused, scared and in shock; he still looked at the young girl beside him. That was it. That's when it all started. 10 year old Shun couldn't know back then that this was the day his normal human life would change forever._

_Back to the present..._

"Wait wait wait wait wait..." Dan started and everyone turned their heads to him, "You guys have known each other for like 10 years?" he asked in disbelief.

Alice nodded slowly, "Yeah, like 9 and a half" she explained and met the Brawlers' confused looks. "It was safer to just allow you guys to assume we didn't know each other..." she went on to say.

"...and then we took a little 10 year old human into our lives cause our little sister couldn't let go..." Mike mocked and Alice hit his shoulder as she laughed with him.

"So I would use the transporter links that were already set up to come here every few days, I trained here with them, helped out and anything really." Shun said.

"Yeah kinda had to after you were found out!" Mike added, still with a slight sarcastic laugh.

The Brawlers all looked at him confused, "Found out?"

Alice leaned forward where she was sitting placing her elbows on her thighs, "Yeah... I kinda lied... and made everyone believe he was a new mutant I had found on the field..." she explained avoiding eye contact with her friends who looked at her in disbelief once more.

"Woah, how long did you keep that up?" Ace asked.

Shun smiled and responded back, "4 months."

"Impressive, consider you're NOT, right?" Ace remarked and Shun nodded.

"I am not" he cleared.

"But how the hell did you get away with all this? Isn't the government involved? How did you train? How did yo-" Dan let out confused and wanting to know more until he was interrupted.

"I think that's a whole other story which it's gotten a little to late for." a male voice remarked from behind them. They turned around to see Jonah standing just behind them, behind him people were clearing up and leaving.

Alice nodded and stood up, "It has gotten late, we should probably get back." she said looking at her friends.

"Aww but I wanna hear more!" Julie moaned

Runo stood up and walked to Alice, "We_ just_ got back." she whispered to her friend, sad that she was going to have to leave her friend. That's when Alice started to look slightly uncomfortable, as if there was something to say but was afraid to.

"Actually... you can't leave...right now..." Alice managed to get out, waiting for the concerned reaction her friends did give her.

"What do you mean, we can't leave?" Ace questioned.

Jonah stepped out in the middle of the group, "As of when you stepped foot into our world you all became persons of interest to the world powers. They'll want to know who you are and if you pose a threat to the whole initiative." he started, trying to calm down the humans and vestals around him whose looks of concern grew. Keith and Gus had stepped closer to be a part of the conversation.

"We can have you all cleared and run security checked by tomorrow, but you'll have to stay tonight." Jonah finished.

The group looked at each other, still confused and feeling somewhat trapped.

"I guess it makes sense..." Keith's voice was heard from out behind them. "It's a massive international scheme that poses many security issues." he went on, analysing the situation.

Jonah met his gaze and nodded, "We have more than enough beds, extra clothing and food for the next 24 hours. It's nothing too invasive, an interview, general physical assessment and background check. If we start early tomorrow we can send you all back by dinner." he explained.

The group seemed to have calmed down and accepted the terms, they had showed up unannounced without considering the protocols so it made sense. They started to pick up their things and walking away, all except Keith who stayed behind, looking into the dying fire. He had always been a deep thinker, once something caught his interest he obsessed over it and something was not adding up for him. He was so lost in his thoughts he didn't notice Jane walking up behind him.

"Jeez, do you sell those broody looks?" she mocked him jokingly. That woke him from his trance and he turned his head to her.

"Sorry, I like to think." he told her. Jane noticed a tone of uncomfortableness in him as she got closer to him.

"I can see that... so moody, so tragic" she mocked him again. Keith looked at her again to notice she was a lot closer than he thought. She was standing not an inch away from him, almost pressing herself onto him. In seeing this Keith took a step back in surprise and Jane giggled.

"I already told you, I won't bite..." she teased him as she started to walk away, Keith didn't understand what had just happened. He had just been mocked twice and made timid, a thing that hadn't ever happened before. He stood there unaware of what to say or do as Jane continued to walk away.

"Well come on then!" She called out to him, with the slightest teasing tone in her voice. It took him a few seconds to be able to move; but once he did he started following Jane back towards the house.

Back at the house each brawler was given a room to stay in for the night and were all in those rooms to go to bed. Alice was in the kitchen living room putting away some of the things they had brought out for the bonfire. Then, there was a sudden light breeze that went through the room. Alice smiled and turned around to face Shun, who was now stood behind her.

"You know, for a human, you're pretty good at sneaking up on people." she joked and she used her hands to lift herself onto the counter behind her. Shun smiled and step towards her and place his hands either side of her.

"I guess I'll take that as a compliment." he joked along with her and she smiled back for a few seconds until her face dropped and she suddenly looked worried and sad.

"Talk to me." Shun told her, knowing there was something bothering her.

Alice, looking down at her hands, shook her head slowly ans sighed, "I'm just worried... I mean, this is exactly what I didn't want to happen. Them hurt and put on the spot. I just really need tomorrow to go well."

Shun understood. These were some of the reasons they'd kept this all hidden from their friends, it was dangerous.

He looked at the girl in front of him and placed his hands on her cheeks, making her look at him and she smiled. "It'll be fine, if I got passed this at 10 they can do it now, even Dan and Baron." he joked again making Alice laugh.

She nodded back at him and stared into his eyes. She leaned in to kiss him and her hands mirrored his, cupping his face; it was a short but deep kiss. She leaned out of it and looked at him again, "You're right, it'll be fine." she said to him ans he smiled at her.

Shun leaned in to place a kiss on her forehead, "We should get some sleep, tomorrow is going to be a long one." he said to her, letting go of her. Alice nodded and looked around the kitchen to see the last few plates to put away.

"I'll be in in a minute." she said pushing herself off the counter as Shun took a couple steps backwards.

"Ok, but don't stay up too long, I won't wait up." he teased her as he walked into the hallway.

Alice chuckled at his remark, "Oh yes you will." she said just loud enough for him to hear; a small chuckle was heard before the door closed down the hallway.

Alice smiled, looking into the hallway. She turned to face the counter again and crossed her arms along the middle of her torso. Her smile vanished again, still worried what the next day would bring.

"It'll be fine." she whispered, trying to convince herself. She then put the remaining plates away and went to join Shun in their room. The next, was going to be a very long day.


	10. Chapter 10

**SOOO... it's been a month.. BUUUT it's because i have actually change a few things in the future of the story so here's just a little set up to keep the ball rolling...**

it was the next morning, very early. Mira and Runo found their way to the living room of the main house where they had been told they could stay the night. Julie was still sleeping, none of them got much sleep last night due to all the revelations that had taken place over the last day.

both girls walked in in silence and met with Dan and Ace looking back at them, also looking quite nervous. They had no idea what the next day was going to bring, all they were told was to be up and ready by nine, it was eight. Runo sighed, and remembered last night.

last night midnight

Runo had heard the door to Alice's room close twice, they had both probably gone to be done. It was really weird but not unexpected that two of her best friends had gotten together. What was unexpected that both of those friends had kept full second lives secret from all of their friends for years.

she had been placed in a room with 3 single beds along with Mira and Julie. It was the same house they had known for years, but it was different. They noticed more things that made sense to them now that they knew the truth. From the number of rooms they thought were storing to the weirdly large amount of seating or utensils around the house. The signs were there, they just didn't notice.

All three girls were each on a bed, in basic night clothes Alice and Jane had lent them for the night.

"This is mad…" Julie started, "I can't believe this." the girls nodded at her comment.

"How did we not see there was something going on...?" Runo whispered breaking the silence again. Mira and Julie looked up at her, they understood what she meant. Mira had known Alice less than the other girls but still there were signs.

A sudden but quiet knock on the door startled them. They turn to see Alice peeking in. "Can I come in…?" she asked.

After the girls told Alice to come in she walked up to them and crossed her arms.

"I'm sorry…" Alice started.

The three girls sat there confused as to why she was apologising.

"For what?" Runo asked her.

Alice looked up at her and sighed, "For everything, lying, the fact that you have to stay, the checks tomorrow… it's a lot. I'm sorry." Alice face went pretty sad and full of regret. They knew their friend was hating this all as much as them, maybe even more.

Runo shook her head before she stood up and walked to Alice, taking her hands in her own and gave a small smile.

"You did what you had to. This isn't your fault." Runo reassured her friend. Alice looked over Runo's shoulder and the two girls behind her who were now sharing that same small smile. Alice smiled back.

"So…" Julie started standing up and walking to the two girls. Runo turned to face her and Alice made contact with her.

"Shuuuuun….?" She added with a cheeky smile. This made Alice giggle and blush a little but not really feel embarrassed. All three girl sat on the beds a smiled. it was all so normal again.

"Yeah… that…." Alice said smiling.

"Please do tell." Mira urged the other ginger girl. With made her chuckle again.

"What do you want to know?" she asked shrugging her shoulders.

"When and how?" Julie squealed, wanting to know all the juicy details of her friend's relationship..

"About five years ago and after a particularly tough mission." Alice explained.

"Nah huh! details please!" julie protested and all the girls laughed together. It was so normal.

Once they settled down Alice spoke again, "Tomorrow, after the checks. It's kind of a really long story…" she told her friends. With that she began to get up and head to the door.

"It's going to be a long day, get some rest" she told them before leaving the room and heading back.

Back to the morning…

Runo smiled and thought of last night, it was all going to be fine. Alice wouldn't put them through something bad on purpose. She looked over at her boyfriend who looked just as lost as she had not a moment ago.

Dan was thinking of his own experience of last night.

Last night…

Dan could here the girls' door open and close and muffled voices coming through the walls. He had been given a twin room with Marucho which shared a small common area with three more twin rooms where Ace and Baron, and Keith and Gus had been placed.

Keith and Gus had decided to turn in earlier so the rest of them were in that small common area talking over all that had happened so far.

"This is so dumb." Ace spat out under his breathe, still loud enough for the other boys to hear. "Why are we being held against our will because THEY lied?" he added, leaning back on the sofa and crossing his arms.

The other boys didn't respond, they understood what he meant but didn't agree with the blaming Alice and Shun. Still, they said nothing.

"Hey." a voice called from the doorway, which had been opened without them realising. Shun stood there, then leaned on the door frame and crossed his arms. "We thought we'd check on you guys before we turned in." he told them, keeping his gaze low but still looking at them.

"W-we're okay Shun, really" Marucho stumbled.

As the small blonde boy said that Ace's hand hit his own legs in frustration. "No. No we're not okay." he said in a cold voice, holding back his frustration.

Shun held the silence for a few seconds, looking straight at his mint haired friend. he sighed and moved from the doorframe to walk into the middle of the room, right in front of Ace.

"This whole thing…" he started, serious but still as compassionate as possible. "…Is a lot, trust me. I am almost 10 years in and there's still things that freak me out. Trust me when I say, we made the right call in not involving you guys." Ace's frustration grew more intensely and Dan noticed.

"I'm sure you did." Dan said, standing up to meet his best friend and smiled, he got a small smile back. "So, what's going to happen tomorrow?" Dan asked.

Shun looked at his best friend then to the rest of his friends behind him. "It's honestly nothing bad, Jonah has a tendency of being slightly dramatic at times. You'll just be briefed on it all and be asked questions from the board. Background checks will be done to make sure you won't turn on us and that it." Shun explain.

The 4 boys sighed and calmed down, realising they would be able to go home pretty soon.

"It'll be fine. Trust me." Shun added as he turned to leave.


End file.
